Atlanta's Gonzalez thriving in his 16th NFL season

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP)

It's not so much that Gonzalez leads the league with 39 catches.
When the year began, Gonzalez was already the NFL's No. 2-career
leading receiver.

What's making this season special for Gonzalez is the
versatility of Atlanta's offense. With quarterback Matt Ryan
thriving in his fifth year, Gonzalez said he can't imagine how
tough it is for opponents to contain the unbeaten Falcons.

''When you play against us, what are you going to do?'' he said.
''It just adds to the choose-your-poison offense that we want to
be, that we strive to be.''

Last week at Washington, Gonzalez caught 13 passes - the
second-best game of his career - for 123 yards and one touchdown
while the Redskins struggled to cover him while also accounting for
Roddy White, Julio Jones and Michael Turner.

That's not to say the Falcons (5-0) don't have some issues to
work out offensively when Oakland (1-3) visits the Georgia Dome on
Sunday.

Atlanta started sluggishly against Carolina and couldn't solve
protection problems that led to seven sacks of Ryan.

Against the Redskins, Ryan underthrew several short routes in
the first half. But after Washington took a touchdown lead on Ryan
Kerrigan's interception return early in the second quarter, the
Falcons settled down as their quarterback and tight end began to
work in concert.

Ryan targeted Gonzalez 14 times. Only one pass fell
incomplete.

''It does teach us some resiliency,'' Gonzalez said. ''It also
teaches us that, as we go on - and if we get to where we want to
go, especially playoff time - you're going up against some real
good teams. It's not always going to go the way that you want. It
shows good character from our team up to this point, and we've got
to build off of it.''

Oakland brings a struggling defense to Atlanta. The Raiders rank
25th in total yards, last in third-down efficiency, third worst in
scoring and second worst in sacks per pass play, but Gonzalez
believes that Oakland will come ready to hand the Falcons their
first loss.

''Any team that we play from here on out, as long as we keep
doing what we're doing, they're going to be gunning for us,''
Gonzalez said. ''They are going to bring their best, and I expect
nothing less from the Raiders. They're going to be primed to get an
upset.''

Though he's 36, Gonzalez looks to be in excellent health. The
6-foot-5, 243-pound former standout at California has missed just
two games since Kansas City drafted him in the first round of 1997,
and his production has continued at an unprecedented rate.

He credits a new stretching regimen with making him quicker, and
he also added basketball to his offseason activities for the first
time in three years. Gonzalez, who played in 82 games with 16
starts at Cal, has enjoyed taking the block move he uses when
playing the post in basketball to beating man-to-man coverage on
the football field.

''It's the same move, but maybe now I'm just exploding out there
a little bit quicker whereas before it was a little bit slower,''
Gonzalez said. ''That's the difference. I was just talking to our
strength coach that to be successful in the NFL, for most players,
it's not about how fast I can get from this point to the end of the
locker room. It's about how fast I can get from this point to that
point, right there (2 feet apart). It's that quick.''

It also seems that Gonzalez has learned to compensate and keep
his statistics soaring.

He last year moved past Marvin Harrison and Cris Carter to
become the league's second-leading career receiver behind Pro
Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice. Gonzalez needs one touchdown
catch to reach 100 and claim the eighth-best number in NFL
history.

''If I had any other goal coming into this year besides getting
to the Super Bowl, that was it,'' Gonzalez said. ''I'm glad I'm
coming up to it. Hopefully I get it this week, but if not, I'm sure
it will happen sooner or later.''

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